Games We Used To Play

[I Am Nico]

At school from 1961 till mid 70's when we were prevented from playing by the teachers, (had to walk and talk) what games did you play in and out of school and when was that?
Paul says he played chace the Ace with his dad. The girls in my class had very long pieces of joined up elastic and they made patterns jumping in and out of it. My aunt did it across her hands like a hank of wool. She called it cat's cradle. We played hop scotch hopping jinn,. kiss catch, off ground tig, Stag. Cigarette cards, marbles, rounders, five stones, drawing in the jitty in the earth and cinders,queenio cokio. My Brummie cousin taught me that. My mum played kick the can must have been in the 30's:05.18-flustered:
Nico

 

[Zambodini]

Always remember a couple of aggressive games. One the PE teacher used to encourage in the gym (he was a complete sadist). It was called Britsh Bulldog. He would pick out one kid (usually the one who looked like he didn't fancy it the most) and they would stand in the middle, and the rest of us had to run from one end to the other. He had to try and cach someone. Then there were two, three and so on until there was one left.

Other game in the playground called polly on the mopstick. Two teams. One team at to line up and bend down so they produced a linked train. The other team in turn ran and jumped on their backs seeing how far you could get down the line to enable the rest of the team to jump on. That one could get a bit vicious as well

 

[carolina]

I was at a much more 'refined' school ( not really) - we played in and out of the scottish blue bells.

 

[oldMohawk]

I've just had a read through an old thread find it here and was reminded of many old childhood games like 'bags', 'fire cans', 'Polly on a Mopstick' and many more. I'd forgotten all about the 'bags' game - didn't take much to amuse us back then...

 

[I Am Nico]

Always remember a couple of aggressive games. One the PE teacher used to encourage in the gym (he was a complete sadist). It was called Britsh Bulldog. He would pick out one kid (usually the one who looked like he didn't fancy it the most) and they would stand in the middle, and the rest of us had to run from one end to the other. He had to try and cach someone. Then there were two, three and so on until there was one left.

Other game in the playground called polly on the mopstick. Two teams. One team at to line up and bend down so they produced a linked train. The other team in turn ran and jumped on their backs seeing how far you could get down the line to enable the rest of the team to jump on. That one could get a bit vicious as well

Your Bulldog was like my stag but in the playground. STag Stag Stag 1 2 3. As they held on to you. I had a sadist teacher who made us play scrum ball. You got it from one end of the gym to the other, anyhow, any way.

 

[I Am Nico]

I was at a much more 'refined' school ( not really) - we played in and out of the scottish blue bells.

I played that but they were bonny bluebells, nan played in and out the darkened windows and they sang stand and face your lover, ours was partner.
Loved country dances was team captain with a big wench. We were the worst team but we had the best laugh. My mate, the one who fell in the mud in Stourport danced with a mature 11/12 year old girl, she wore suspenders and he joggled her up and down so she would flash them, to a dance called Caludden.
@ lads had to dance together so they hated it.

 

[boro keith]

At the end of each term we would play a game called pirates in the gym. All the equipment would be placed around the gym and the floor was classed as the sea you would have 2 teams and the idea was to knock the other team into the sea. Could we get rid of H&S for 1 day to show the kids what fun we use to have

 

[rosie]

My Mum used to play TipCat which sounds dangerous too! They would find a piece of firewood and sharpen both ends then balance it crossways on another piece. With another bat-shaped piece they would hit the first piece so that it went up in the air, then they hit it as far as they could! It sounds lethal!!
(My PE teacher used to put hurdles the other way round so they wouldn't fall over if we missed! Ouch!!)
rosie.

 

[brummie nick]

My Mum used to play TipCat which sounds dangerous too!

It could also be expensive, I remember playing it when one of the lads smashed a window, and the person who's window it was insisted we all paid something towards having it replaced.
:courage: {happy days}

 

[maypolebaz]

At the end of each term we would play a game called pirates in the gym. All the equipment would be placed around the gym and the floor was classed as the sea you would have 2 teams and the idea was to knock the other team into the sea. Could we get rid of H&S for 1 day to show the kids what fun we use to have

Pirates ! I'd forgotten that one. We used to love it.

 

[mossg]

Talk about health and safety,todays parents would have a dicky fit if their kids had fun like this.

 

[rosie]

Those swings weren't so bad in the middle but on the end it was terrifying!! They used to see how many could climb on at one go. I liked the type of roundabout in the background, there was one in Lightwood's Park, also a cobweb shaped one. In Summerfield Park there was a witches hat roundabout, it used to go quite high but the lads kept lifting it off it's pole so it was removed.
rosie.

 

[Morturn]

There used to be a ‘a cobweb shaped one’ in Short Heath Park, off Court Lane, Erdington.

My friends elder brother used to make us get on, then he would get in the middle and spin the thing round at terrifying speed.

It would be zooming round so fast, you could feel the blood draining out of your head, and would almost pass out.

 

[Simon4130]

Bulldog could certainly get very rough. A similar game was "Spider" which would start out the same way but each person caught linked arms to form a web to catch the others one by one, again fairly rough at times!! Another one where we risked life and limb was "Murder in the dark" which had to be played indoors, a bit like a pillow fight with the lights switched off. We played it in a caravan on holiday once and smashed one of the big light fittings (nearly landed on someones head!) then spend ages trying the hide all the broken glass. Somehow we are all still alive :courage:

 

[mossg]

A couple of other pictures showing typical playground rides from our childhood days.moss

 

[carolina]

On the 2nd picture I was on the one almost the same as that one but in Black Patch Park, when my foot got caught underneath as I was scooting on it and threw me on the floor and I still have the scar today on my foot.

 

[oldMohawk]

In the late 1940's us kids in Perry Beeches, after the drab years of wartime, were excited by the Brummies Speedway team on the 'dirt track' at Perry Barr so we got to work making a track on the field behind our houses for our games of cycle speedway. We called the team Aces and made uniforms with 'Ace of Clubs' and used surplus american army helmets to look good. The pics below show us with our old bikes posing for team photos on our field. I can't remember why one girl stands amongst us ruffians in the lower photo.

 

[Astoness]

what wonderful photos phil...

thanks for sharing them with us...

lyn

 

[carolina]

Great photos. I bet you made go carts as well from an old pram

 

[Wendy]

I totally agree with Lyn fantastic photo's of the time thank you for posting them for us.

 

[G G Jean]

Phil thank you so much for sharing those wonderful photo's with us. Jean.

 

[oldMohawk]

We were so lucky to have that rough field, it had a large deep brook running through it - we built dams, and dared each other to jump the brook, and often fell in.
One other game we played was to stand on a bridge and drop sticks in the brook to see who's stick went fastest and farthest.

 

[rosie]

We used to play Shove Ha'penny on holiday if it rained. A couple of weeks ago at a car boot sale I bought a proper Shove Ha'penny board for 50p.....no-one knew what it was!!

I have got some old halfpennies but the rules on the internet say that one side must be polished flat, I don't want to be that serious about it though. We only played for the fun of it.

rosie.

 

[I Am Nico]

My mum played tip cat too, and we also played pirates. My friend broke her leg when she came off the mushroom. It was a big metal 'mushroom' with bars underneath the 'cap' and you spun round it like a roundabout and hung underneath off the bars. In my teens I went to a 21st fancy dress brthday party. They had dug up the roundabouts swings & slide etc and moved them for a rehab. Me and my mate forgot and we fell in the hole in the pitch black, drunk and dressed as the ugly sisters. Thanks for making me remember that.

 

[I Am Nico]

We used to play Shove Ha'penny on holiday if it rained. A couple of weeks ago at a car boot sale I bought a proper Shove Ha'penny board for 50p.....no-one knew what it was!!

I have got some old halfpennies but the rules on the internet say that one side must be polished flat, I don't want to be that serious about it though. We only played for the fun of it.

rosie.

Do you know what shuffle board is Rosie?

 

[Astonian]

hi guys
the main games we wpould play is tracking around the ladywood area king edwards rd and spring field street and stour street
and cope street there wopuld be about twenty of us as these nick nacs covered all those streets
there was out lets and alley ways all through to those street by just going into one of them
best wishes astonian;

 

[rosie]

Sorry Nico, I haven't heard of that one!
rosie.

 

[dimmy]

We were so lucky to have that rough field, it had a large deep brook running through it - we built dams, and dared each other to jump the brook, and often fell in.
One other game we played was to stand on a bridge and drop sticks in the brook to see who's stick went fastest and farthest.

My memories of the brook include the tree at the side of it which we tied a rope to one of the branches and used to swing out over the water and the jump off back onto dry land. This was fine until one day on my second swing another lad jumped on the rope with me and of course all momentum was lost and we ended up in the brook. I'm ashamed to say that in my temper when we were back on the bank I shoved the other lad (name escapes me) into some stingers. His howling didn't make me dry however!

 

[oldMohawk]

My memories of the brook include the tree at the side of it which we tied a rope to one of the branches and used to swing out over the water and the jump off back onto dry land. This was fine until one day on my second swing another lad jumped on the rope with me and of course all momentum was lost and we ended up in the brook. I'm ashamed to say that in my temper when we were back on the bank I shoved the other lad (name escapes me) into some stingers. His howling didn't make me dry however!

Hi Dimmy - Regarding our playfield, maybe you remember when they built prefabs on half it.
On the 1945 aerial view shown below ....
The letter 'A' marks the prefabs.
The letter 'B' marks roughly where the tree was which you fell off !
The bowling green of the Beeches Pub is quite noticeable.
Slighty off topic and although the resolution of the pic is not good, the view of Bradfield Road seems to show gaps in the house layouts which may have been where the bombs fell. However, maybe the houses had been rebuilt by 1945 when this pic was taken.
Some forum links relative to the playfield are below.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=9266&p=290858#post290858
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=9266&p=416741#post416741

 

[I Am Nico]

In the past I have landed in charter flights coming in to Brum and I always saw this maze of streets with a circular street in the middle . Would this be it?